Work on turf will start after Dec. 25
By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer
FieldTurf, the company installing its brand of synthetic grass in Aloha Stadium, will start work on the subsurface of the Halawa facility right after the Hawai'i Bowl on Dec. 25, according to a timetable submitted by the company.
The timetable includes the time needed for the subsurface of the stadium to be prepared for the installation of FieldTurf, an artificial grass product that uses layers of sand and rubber infill. Polyethylene fibers that simulate grass blades are woven into a backing. Recycled tires and sneakers partly comprise the rubber infill.
In order for the turf to be properly installed, the crown on the field needs to be shaved down.
Work on the subsurface should take two weeks.
The new turf is supposed to be installed in time for the Pro Bowl on Feb. 2. The new time frame for installation — the five weeks between the Hawai'i Bowl and the Pro Bowl — is enough time for the Montreal-based company to prep the field and lay down the turf, said FieldTurf CEO John Gilman.
"There shouldn't be any problem," Gilman said.
The cost of work on the subsurface has been recently estimated to be between $500,000 and $600,000.
Gilman said he will negotiate with contractors to lessen the cost of prep work. No contract has been drafted yet.
"The work should be done for a lot less than that," Gilman said. "It's our duty to get the best possible price for the shaping and shaving of the crown. We're going to come over and sit down with these contractors and walk them through it. We've done this many times before. We know how much this should cost."
He added that the work involved to prepare the surface for the new turf isn't out of the ordinary.
"Anytime you take AstroTurf off the field, most often you have to get rid of the crown," he said.
The turf's replacement was part of an agreement reached in 2000 between the HTA and the NFL's Pro Bowl. The NFL prefers natural grass or FieldTurf because its players have complained about injuries suffered on AstroTurf.
FieldTurf has estimated the cost of installing the turf at $877,000.
